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WALTER 

RUSSELL 

LAMBLITH 


MISSIONARY 


«O0O« 


I!rf 


Walter,  Russell 

Lambuth 

M.D.,  D.D.,  F.  R.G.S. 


By 

E.H.Rawlin4s.D.D. 


Board  o/Afiss/ons 
Methodist -Episcopa/  Church,  SoufA 

A^czs/iv/f/e,  Tennessee. 


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jinctD  ye  not  that  there  a 
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thi^  (Say  in  hrwd'! 


TO 

OUR. 

MISSIONARIES 

AND 

MINISTERS 

EVERYWHERE 


>■ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/walterrusselllamOOrawl 


“I  shall  be  ^  ^ 
constantly  watching 


Lsst  words  ^Bishop  L&mbuth  ^ 


Dr.  E.  H.  Rawlings, 

810  Broadway, 

Nashville,  Tennessee. 

Dear  Dr.  Rawlings : 

I  congratulate  you  on  your  worthy  tribute 
to  Bishop  Lambuth.  It  is  entirely  fitting  that 
this  memorial  to  our  best-beloved  and  most 
distinguished  missionary  and  world  citizen 
should  have  been  written  by  one  who  traveled 
and  wrought  with  him  in  many  lands. 

The  Church,  the  missionaries  and  number¬ 
less  friends  and  admirers  of  many  faiths  and  in 
many  countries  will  welcome  what  you  have 
done  to  commemorate  a  great  and  unselfish 
ministry  to  mankind. 

No  words,  however  eloquent,  can  add  to  the 
lustre  that  his  deeds  have  already  lent  to  his 
memory.  But  your  tribute  has  a  greater  mis¬ 
sion  than  eulogy,  however  deserving,  and  has 
been  inspired  by  a  higher  motive.  May  it  be 
blessed  of  God  in  fulfilling  that  higher  purpose 
of  kindling  the  missionary  passion,  exalting 
prayer  as  a  working  force  and  so  hastening  the 
reign  of  Him  whose  coming  into  the  world  we 
are  today  celebrating. 


Christmas  Day,  1921. 


ForevJord 

This  little  booklet  is  not  intended  in  any 
sense  as  a  “Life”  of  Bishop  Lambuth.  Some 
man  qualified  in  head  and  heart  for  the  task 
will  produce  a  larger  work  as  a  biography  that 
should  live  as  a  missionary  classic  in  the  liter¬ 
ature  of  the  Church.  It  is  too  soon  to  speak 
definitely,  but  as  one  might  naturally  suppose 
the  matter  is  under  consideration  by  those 
concerned  and  we  are  hoping  that  service  will 
not  be  long  delayed. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  Virginia  Annual 
Conference,  when  I  was  asked  to  speak  in  a 
memorial  service  for  Bishop  Lambuth,  the 
very  thought  of  saying  worthily  the  things 
that  ought  to  be  said  was,  on  the  instant,  the 
despair  of  a  heart  that  so  profoundly  cherished 
the  precious  things  of  his  remarkable  life.  But 
in  the  busy  hours  of  the  Conference  by  day 
and  by  night  the  recollections  of  an  intimate 
association  for  many  years  burned  in  my  heart 
until  they  flowed  forth  in  an  estimate  which 
voices,  I  hope,  not  only  my  own  but  the  sin¬ 
cere  and  spontaneous  sentiments  of  other 
thousands,  great  and  small,  in  the  Church, 
who  knew  him  as  friend  and  brother. 


9 


The  paper  was  afterwards  used  in  the  Upper 
South  Carolina  and  North  Alabama  Confer¬ 
ences,  and  though  several  times  urged  to  give 
out  the  statement  in  some  printed  form,  I 
did  not  finally  decide  to  do  so  until  a  note 
came  from  Doctor  S.  H,  Wainwright,  Bishop 
Lambuth’s  long-time  friend,  enclosing  an  ac¬ 
count  of  the  revival  in  Oita,  Japan,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Japan  Mission,  in  which 
Bishop  Lambuth  and  others  of  his  co-workers 
received  a  remarkable  spiritual  blessing.  This 
account  of  the  Oita  experience  supplied  so 
admirably  what  I  felt  was  lacking  in  my  own 
paper  and  in  the  best  estimate  I  had  heard  of 
Bishop  Lambuth’s  life  hitherto,  that  I  decided 
to  print  the  memorial  paper  just  as  read  before 
the  Annual  Conferences,  sending  along  with 
it  the  account  of  the  Oita  experience  as  a 
window  through  which  the  Church  that  so 
affectionately  and  profoundly  cherishes  his 
leadership  may  look  in  upon  the  deepest  secret 
of  his  devoted  life. 

I  do  not  know  anyone  who  better  than 
Bishop  Lambuth  combined  with  a  generous 
appreciation  of  the  best  in  modern  intel¬ 
lectual  method  the  old  evangelical  emphasis 
in  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  neither 
mystical  nor  mysterious,  but  simply  Christian, 
to  believe  that  the  “anointing”  he  received  at 


10 

Oita  taught  him  how  to  hold  safely  the  good 
middle  way  of  loyalty  and  progress  that  he 
knew  so  well.  I  believe  with  all  my  heart  that 
the  safe  way  for  the  Church  in  a  time  of  change 
and  of  confusion  will  not  be  found  in  the  thesis 
of  the  critic,  either  higher  or  lower,  but  in  the 
higher  synthesis  of  Pentecost. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  Centenary  Move¬ 
ment  I  have  visited  all  our  old  mdssion  fields 
but  one,  and  I  have  returned  with  one  im¬ 
pression  that  glows  and  impels  with  the  force 
of  an  invincible  conviction;  and  it  is  that  our 
supreme  need  in  every  field  is  for  another 
Pentecost  and  that  the  set  time  for  its  coming 
is  upon  us  if  we  will  faithfully  claim  it.  May 
the  Centenary  ideal  everywhere  struggling 
for  utterance  in  a  great  revival  find  instant 
reinforcement  in  the  recollection  of  this  ex¬ 
perience  of  our  fallen  leader. 


11 

Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambu^h 

MISSIONARY 

The  condition  of  Bishop  Lambuth  was 
more  serious  when  he  was  leaving  for  the  field 
last  summer  than  his  friends  or  even  his 
physician  knew.  He  was  ill  on  board  ship, 
got  better,  but  was  uncomfortable  and  far 
from  well  in  the  long  trips  he  took  in  China, 
Korea  and  Manchuria,  until  during  the  ses¬ 
sions  of  the  Japan  Mission  held  in  Karuizawa, 
his  trouble  became  so  acute  that  he  must 
hurry  for  an  operation  to  the  Yokohama 
General  Hospital,  Yokohama,  Japan. 

The  operation  was  performed  on  September 
13th,  and  a  cable,  coming  immediately  to  his 
wife,  said:  “Operation,  skilled  American 
surgeon,  doing  nicely.”  September  15th  the 
second  cable  said,  “Doing  nicely.”  September 
16th,  “Constant  improvement,”  September 
18th,  “Out  of  Danger.”  But  on  September 
26th  two  cables  came.  The  first  said,  “Con¬ 
dition  serious,  heart  complication,”  and  a 
little  later  in  the  day  another  cable  with  the 
sorrowful  message:  “At  rest,  instruct  Towson 
at  Yokohama.” 


13 


There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  he  in 
some  measure  foresaw  what  so  soon  awaited 
him.  In  one  of  the  last  conversations  I  had 
with  him  before  his  return  to  the  field,  as  we 
talked  over  the  work,  its  outlook  and  needs, 
he  confided  the  impression  that  he  should  not 
return  to  the  East  after  this  quadrennium; 
and,  when  I  insisted  that  such  was  his  relation 
to  these  fields  that  no  one  could  do  the  work 
as  could  he,  with  the  positiveness  of  conviction 
he  still  declared  that  he  probably  would  not 
return. 

Certainly  when  the  summons  came,  his 
house  was  in  order  and  he  was  ready  with  his 
accounting.  The  day  before  the  operation 
in  Yokohama,  he  dictated  a  letter  to  Doctor 
Pinson  setting  forth  with  characteristic 
thoughtfulness  the  condition  of  the  work,  and 
in  a  manner  and  spirit  that  in  every  line  of 
that  remarkable  communication  breathes  the 
consciousness  of  impending  change.  That 
letter  reached  our  office,  and  was  first  read 
many  days  after  the  end  had  come,  and  as  the 
Church  reads  it  now  it  will  sound  as  it  did  to 
us,  the  voice  of  our  great  leader  and  friend 
speaking  still  the  word  of  faithfulness  so  like 
him,  but  out  of  the  silences  of  the  world  invis¬ 
ible  and  immortal: 


14 


'  General  Hospital,  Yokohama,  Japan, 

September  11,  1921. 

Doctor  W.  W.  Pinson,  Secretary, 

Nashville,  Tenn. 

My  dear  Doctor: 

It  seems  necessary,  under  the  circumstances,  that  I 
write  you  a  few  lines  concerning  matters  that  pertain 
to  the  several  Missions  in  the  Orient.  After  landing  in 
Shanghai,  on  the  8th  of  July,  I  proceeded  to  Soochow 
the  next  day  and  spent  two  days;  then  returned  to 
Shanghai  and  left,  on  the  14th,  for  the  famine  area, 
through  which  I  pressed,  by  rail,  and  satisfied  myself 
that  nothing  more,  in  an  organized  way,  needed  to  be 
done  by  the  Committee  in  the  United  States.  I  went 
on  to  Songdo,  Korea,  via  Mukden,  and  spent  three 
days  with  Doctor  Cram  and  then,  with  the  party  of 
four,  including  Cram,  Taylor,  Brannon  and  Ryang, 
went  north  in  Manchuria,  visiting  Kirin  and  Harbin. 
We  have  already  decided  to  hold  the  Annual  Meeting 
of  the  Siberia- Manchuria  Mission  July  31st  at  Nikolsk, 
instead  of  at  Harbin. 

From  thence,  we  proceeded  to  Vladivostok,  spending 
a  couple  of  days,  then,  returning  to  Harbin,  turned 
northward  to  Songdo,  arriving  there  August  10th. 
Here  I  spent  nearly  two  weeks  recuperating  from  a 
severe  cold  contracted  in  Nikolsk;  but  took  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  to  go  over  plans  and  policies  for 
Korea  and  Siberia  with  Doctor  Cram,  with  Miss  Myers 
concerning  the  new  woman’s  plant  in  Seoul,  with  Deal 
and  Carter  about  their  industrial  work;  then  went  to 
Wonsan  to  meet  the  Presiding  Elders  on  one  day  and 
the  Medical  men  of  the  Mission  on  the  next.  Return- 


ing  to  Seoul,  I  reviewed  the  Seminary  educational 
policies  and  how  to  best  conserve  the  results  of  the 
Centenary  work  with  Doctors  Hardie  and  Cram. 
During  this  visit  I  had  an  interview  with  the  Governor- 
General  to  restore  Miss  Smith,  who  had  been  retired 
from  the  Principalship  a  year  ago. 

I  outline  the  foregoing  so  that  you  may  see  nothing 
has  been  neglected.  In  fact,  almost  every  possible 
preparation  has  been  made  for  the  Annual  Meeting  of 
the  Korea  Mission  and  for  the  Annual  Conference. 

I  reached  Karuizawa  on  Monday  night,  where  the 
Annual  Meeting  was  to  begin  on  Tuesday,  August 
30th.  For  three  days  I  was  able  to  preside  and  meet 
with  the  District  Superintendents.  By  Friday,  it  was 
imperative,  under  medical  advice,  to  leave  for  a  lower 
altitude,  where  it  was  warmer  and  where  I  could  get 
much  needed  and  skillful  attention  from  a  surgeon. 

The  appointments  were  all  carefully  made  out  before 
I  left.  Doctor  Newton  took  the  chair  and  Doctor  F.  S. 
Parker,  by  his  presence  and  counsel,  rendered  most 
valuable  assistance.  Words  fail  to  express  what  I  suf¬ 
fered  during  the  eighteen  hours  of  travel  and  a  night 
spent  in  Tokyo. 

My  long-time  friend  and  dear  brother,  W.  E.  Towson, 
took  me  to  the  United  States  Naval  Hospital  in  Yoko¬ 
hama,  where  Doctor  Raymond  Speer,  who  is  surgeon 
in  charge,  relieved  me,  temporarily.  I  was  brought 
to  the  Yokohama  General  Hospital  and  have  been 
under  his  care  for  nine  days,  with  but  little  amelior¬ 
ation  of  condition,  and  must  go  on  the  table  tomorrow 
morning,  Monday,  September  12th.  The  surgeon  is 
spoken  of  as  one  of  the  most  skilled  in  Japan,  the  in- 


stitution  is  well' ordered  in  every  respect,  and  I  have 
every  attention  a  reasonable  patient  could  expect. 

This  is  evidently  a  return  of  the  attack,  in  a  much 
severer  form,  which  I  had  on  the  Empress  of  Asia  dur¬ 
ing  the  last  week  of  the  voyage  before  reaching  Kobe. 
As  you  know,  I  went  on  to  Shanghai,  to  have  the 
company  of  Brother  Nance  in  case  of  an  emergency, 
and  to  get  the  continued  benefit  of  the  warmer  atmos¬ 
phere,  which,  through  elimination,  relieved  the  pelvic 
organs.  I  was  so  anxious  not  to  fail  in  meeting  my 
appointments,  that  I  pushed  on  to  Korea  and  Siberia, 
making  the  land  journey  of  something  like  four  thou¬ 
sand,  two  hundred  miles  without  any  great  discomfort. 
The  Korea  Annual  Conference  will  begin  its  session 
Wednesday,  the  14th,  but  everything,  to  the  last  detail, 
has  been  provided  for  excepting  the  ordinations.  They 
will  elect  their  own  President  and  I  have  authorized 
Doctor  F.  S.  Parker  to  represent  me  in  such  matters 
as  may  pertain  to  the  business  of  the  Board  of  Missions. 

The  only  remaining  official  business  is  that  of  holding 
the  China  Mission  Conference  in  Soochow,  October 
19th.  My  surgeon  says  I  will  not  be  able  to  travel 
under  thirty  days.  If  I  find  it  impossible  to  reach  the 
Conference  by  the  date  mentioned,  I  will  postpone  it 
for  two  weeks.  If  I  do  not  make  a  good  recovery,  the 
Presiding  Elders  will  be  informed  through  Doctor 
Hearn,  and  they  will  be  under  the  necessity  of  carrying 
out  the  schedule  without  my  presence. 

It  is  with  the  keenest  regret  that  I  am  obliged  to 
make  this  statement,  but  the  necessity  is  upon  me.  I 
do  not  regret  coming,  save  for  the  absence  of  my  wife 
and  daughter  at  this  juncture,  and  I  long  for  their 
presence  and  ministry.  But  Mrs.  Lambuth  and  I 


committed  ourselves  to  God  years  ago,  when  we  first 
entered  the  Mission  field  in  1877,  and  we  and  all  of  our 
interests  have  been  absolutely  in  His  hands  from  that 
time  to  the  present  day. 

Brother  Towson  read  me  the  following  words  this 
morning  from  I.  Peter,  IV;  12,  13,  19 — from  Moffat’s 
translation,  “Beloved,  do  not  be  surprised  at  the  ordeal 
that  is  come  to  test  you,  as  though  foreign  experiences 
befell  you.  You  are  sharing  what  Christ  suffered,  so 
rejoice  in  it  that  you  may  also  rejoice  and  exult  when 
His  glory  is  revealed.  ...  So  let  those  who  are 
suffering  by  the  will  of  God  trust  their  souls  to  Him, 
their  faithful  Creator,  as  they  continue  to  do  right.” 

I  have  never  experienced  such  joy  in  the  ministry  of 
the  saints.  The  missionaries  have  manifested  a  tender 
solicitude  as  children  to  a  father.  I  thank  God  for 
them  and  for  the  native  Christians,  who  have  been 
equally  thoughtful  and  affectionate.  May  grace  and 
peace  abound  in  the  hundreds  of  churches  that  have 
been  established  through  godly  men  and  women. 

Since  this  has  been  dictated  while  lying  in  bed  and  I 
have  no  means  of  copying,  I  will  get  you  to  forward 
this  to  Bishop  Collins  Denny,  Secretary  of  the  College, 
to  whom  I  shall  address  a  few  lines,  to  be  read  by  my 
colleagues  at  the  meeting  in  Richmond. 

I  pray  that  God  will  bless  you  in  your  burden  bearing 
for  others  and  in  the  many  responsibilities  of  your 
office. 

Cordially  your  brother, 

W.  R.  LAMBUTH. 
per  W.  E.  Towson, 


18 


HIS  SIMPLE  HEART 

Bishop  Lambuth  was  the  simplest  hearted 
great  man  I  ever  knew.  The  lowliest  could 
approach  him  and  feel  at  home  in  his  friendly 
presence.  On  railroad  trains  and  steamships 
it  was  a  little  child,  an  old  lady  without  a 
companion,  a  lonely,  unattractive  stranger 
I  that  attracted  him.  In  every  place,  whether 

at  home  or  abroad,  in  China  and  Japan  as  in 
America,  there  was  some  humble  person,  in  no 
wise  connected  with  his  official  responsibility, 
that  must  be  looked  up  and  seen. 

In  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Missions  in  which  he  pleaded  for  enterprises 
!  involving  thousands  of  dollars,  he  took  time  to 

I  plead  with  equal  urgency  and  even  more  ap¬ 

parent  personal  enthusiam,  for  an  old  worn- 
out  Korean  preacher  who  had  no  roof  to  cover 
him,  and  no  means  of  support;  and,  in  a  letter 
from  his  daughter  in  which  she  speaks  of  his 
business  relation  with  the  Board  of  Missions, 
she  says,  “Father  carried  no  life  insurance 
because  he  could  not,”  and  after  referring 
several  times  to  a  subscription  made  by  him 
to  the  old  superannuates  ’  home,  she  says,  “We 
(  would  like  for  the  $500  coming  from  the  Ten- 

j ;  nessee  Conference  Brotherhood  to  be  used  for 

! ;  the  home  of  the  old  Korean  Preachers.  ’  ’ 

] 

r 

r- 


r 


>  • 

r 

; . .  19 


This  does  not  mean  that  with  his  simple 
human  naturalness  were  not  found  easily 
mingling  elements  of  real  greatness.  Not 
such  elements  as  impress  and  dazzle  most 
when  furthest  seen,  but  such  as  broke  upon 
you  unannounced,  but  unmistakable,  as  you 
came  closer  to  him.  I  have  never  known  any 
man  who  would  bear  closer  inspection,  or 
any  whose  personality,  to  the  men  intimately 
associated  with  him,  showed  more  continual 
surprises  of  greatness — those  unfoldings  of 
personality,  insight,  courage,  and  achieve¬ 
ment  that,  finding  a  man  in  life’s  common¬ 
places,  even  while  we  look  on  and  wonder  at 
the  transformation,  lift  him  to  the  plane  of 
the  heroic  and  the  truly  great. 

HIS  VISION  OF  FAR-AWAY  FIELDS 

I  never  knew  a  man  who  was  so  little  satis¬ 
fied  with  the  here-and-now  as  he.  I  never 
knew  a  man  who  had  such  visions  of  far-away 
fields  of  need  into  which  other  men  had  not 
gone,  or  who  possessed  such  courage,  such 
restlessness,  such  passion  of  adventure  to 
cross  frontiers,  explore  unoccupied  regions, 
lay  new  foundations  and  then  build  upon 
them. 

When  we  were  traveling  together  in  the 
East,  with  the  care  of  all  the  churches  upon 


20 


him  and  the  details  of  official  service  in  three 
missions  crowding  constantly  upon  his 
thought,  we  found  him  thinking  and  talking 
almost  constantly  of  a  new  mission  in  what 
at  that  time  seemed  the  impossible  field  of 
Manchuria  and  Siberia.  In  spite  of  dis¬ 
couragements  and  difficulties,  he  was  not  satis¬ 
fied  until  he  himself  had  explored  the  field, 
made  his  representation  to  the  Board  of 
Missions,  and  with  the  Board’s  authorization 
gone  in  his  own  devoted  person  to  open  this 
new  and  last  of  our  mission  fields.  It  was 
with  an  exultation  almost  boyish  in  his  enthu¬ 
siasm  that,  in  reporting  the  consummation 
of  his  plan  in  Siberia,  he  says  in  one  of  his  last 
letters:  “For  its  age,  one  year  only,  it  is  the 
lustiest  mission  we  ever  started;”  and  out 
of  the  pain  and  feebleness  of  that  trying  mis¬ 
sionary  journey,  he  exclaims  in  cheerfulness 
and  confidence,  “I  am  feeling  better,  the 
wonderful  work  in  Korea  and  in  Siberia  has 
been  a  tonic.” 

Twenty-nine  years  ago,  when  visiting  in 
my  home  in  Ashland,  Virginia,  he  confided  the 
hope  he  had  long  cherished  that  some  day  he 
might  be  privileged  to  open  up  a  mission  to 
Africa.  “Here,”  I  said,  “is  a  wonderful 
thing.  Born  the  son  of  a  missionary  and 
serving  for  many  years  as  a  missionary  in 


sides  the  Siberia-Manchuria  and  Congo  Mis¬ 
sions,  he  opened  the  Japan  Mission  and  was 
its  first  superintendent.  He  was  intimately 
related  to  the  establishing  of  the  Korean  Mis¬ 
sion;  he  organized  the  Texas  Mexican  Mission 
and  the  Pacific-Mexican  Mission.  In  the 
eleven  years  of  his  episcopal  service  he  served 
as  Bishop  in  charge  in  Brazil,  in  Africa,  in 
Mexico,  and  in  the  Orient;  and  in  this  time 
he  visited  Mexico  twice,  Brazil  twice,  Africa 
twice,  the  Orient  three  times,  and  Siberia 
twice.  In  all  he  made  about  eighteen  trips 
to  Cuba,  sixteen  to  Mexico,  six  to  Brazil,  two 
to  the  heart  of  Africa  on  foot,  and  six  or 
seven  to  the  Orient.  Surely  no  man  ever 
wore  or  won  more  worthily  than  he  the  honor¬ 
able  fellowship  conferred  upon  him  by  one  of 
the  great  geographical  societies  of  the  world. 

IM  VAST  ACHIEVEMENTS 

But  his  vision  and  courage  were  no  more 
wonderful  than  his  achievements.  He  was 
no  mere  visionary,  projecting  things  in  every 
land  and  letting  them  fall  away  beneath 
nervous  and  impatient  hands.  He  had  the 
patience  and  skill  to  work  out  the  multitude  of 
things  he  so  courageously  began.  I  thought  I 
knew  something  of  his  work  as  a  missionary 
already,  but  it  was  only  when  I  traveled  in 


China,  pioneering,  and  with  his  great  father 
opening  up  for  us  the  mission  in  Japan,  his 
great  restless  spirit  would  not  be  satisfied 
until  he  had  gone  with  the  story  of  the  Gospel 
into  the  heart  of  the  darkest  continent  on 
earth!” 

How  he  followed  this  little  gleam  out  of  his 
own  heart  into  the  darkness,  through  the 
vicissitudes  of  official  service,  how  against 
the  judgment  of  good  men  who,  with  their 
practical  wisdom,  had  not  his  vision  or  his 
courage,  like  some  modern  Livingstone,  he 
penetrated  the  wilderness,  and  taking  with 
him  a  little  handful  of  missionaries,  as  the 
spirit  and  God’s  providence  led  him,  and  at 
the  very  place  to  which,  by  tokens  strange 
but  unmistakable,  that  spirit  led,  he  opened 
up  our  seventh  mission  in  the  heart  of  the 
Belgian  Congo,  how  he  caught  the  imagination 
of  the  Epworth  League  and  through  our 
young  people  carried  the  heart  of  the  Church 
with  him  into  Africa — all  this  and  much  more 
of  the  story  is  now  written  down  in  the  record, 
and  in  the  history  of  the  Church  will  be  read 
as  one  of  the  romances  of  modern  missions. 

If  this  spirit  of  sanctified  adventure  had 
moved  only  once  or  twice  it  would  not  have 
been  so  wonderful,  but  it  was  the  habitual  and 
dominant  thing  in  his  life  throughout.  Be- 


28 


missionary  territory,  especially  in  the  Oriental 
fields,  that  I  came  fully  to  appreciate  the 
work  he  had  done  as  a  missionary  long  before 
his  service  as  secretary  or  bishop  was  begun. 

Everywhere  in  these  three  countries  I  came 
upon  his  footprints  and  rejoiced  in  the  sure 
foundations  laid  by  his  skilled  hands.  Away 
up  at  Peking,  in  the  North,  where  our  Church 
has  no  work,  in  the  Llama  Temple  he  told  us 
how  fifteen  years  before  the  priests  had  driven 
him  out  of  the  temple  in  imminent  peril  of 
his  life.  He  mentioned  what  I  had  not  known, 
that  thirty  years  before  he  had  opened  the 
medical  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  this  city,  and  one  day  as  we  stood  in 
the  magnificent  building  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  he  recalled  modestly 
that  he  had  organized  that  Association,  which 
was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first. 
Association  organized  in  China. 

At  Soochow  I  saw  the  University  whose 
foundations  his  hand  had  laid,  and  in  that 
same  city  the  hospital  that  by  Centenary  funds 
is  growing  into  one  of  the  three  or  four  great 
hospitals  of  China,  and  that  as  a  young 
physician  with  his  brother-in-law.  Doctor 
Park,  he  founded.  At  the  China  Annual  Con¬ 
ference,  I  heard  him,  without  an  interpreter, 
preach  the  Conference  sermon  in  Chinese,  and 


24 


he  so  delighted  the  Chinese  that  they  ex¬ 
claimed  :  ‘‘We  have  a  Chinese  Bishop  at  last.  ” 

In  Japan  his  work  was  even  more  remark¬ 
able.  The  church  at  Central  Kobe,  now  being 
rebuilt  into  what  will  be  probably  the  most 
imposing  church  structure  in  Japan,  he  origin¬ 
ally  built,  and  much  of  it  with  his  own  hands. 
The  Kwansei  Gakuin,  with  a  student  body  of 
1700,  the  largest  institution  in  the  world  with 
which  our  Church  is  connected,  and  going  to 
the  status  of  a  university  in  a  short  time,  he 
founded.  In  order  to  get  possession  of  the 
land  that  he  had  purchased  with  money  com¬ 
ing  to  him  in  answer  to  prayer,  he  and  his 
cultured  wife  moved  into  a  barn  located  on 
the  campus,  and  for  a  time  used  a  hay  loft 
for  a  bed. 

The  Palmore  Night  School,  with  an  unusual 
registration  of  1220,  was  the  product  of  his 
work,  and  many  of  the  leaders  of  Japan  Meth¬ 
odism  today  were  trained  under  his  hand, 
when,  as  a  missionary,  he  taught  the  boys  in 
this  night  school.  With  his  father  he  founded 
the  Hiroshima  Girls’  School.  At  the  General 
Conference  in  Tokyo  I  was  introduced  to  a 
splendid  Japanese  preacher  who  saluted  me 
with  a  cordial  welcome  in  English.  The  next 
day  he  was  elected  Bishop  of  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church.  That  stalwart  young 


25 


leader  had  come  to  Christ  and  been  largely 
trained  for  his  great  leadership  under  the 
ministry  of  Bishop  Lambuth,  speaking  of 
him  affectionately  as  his  '‘Great  Lover.  ”  And 
when  I  saw  the  strength  and  influence  of 
the  Japan  Methodist  Church,  one  of  the  great 
churches  of  that  country  and  of  the  world, 
I  could  not  forget  that  one  of  Bishop  Lam- 
buth’s  last  acts  as  Missionary  Secretary  was 
to  share  in  the  setting  apart  and  organization 
of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Japan. 

In  Mexico,  Cuba  and  Brazil,  with  native  as 
with  missionary,  his  name  is  a  household  word, 
and  his  going  away  will  be  felt  by  multitudes 
in  all  these  lands  as  a  great  personal  sorrow. 

TRUE  IN  THE  GREAT  TESTING 

But  no  less  than  in  his  power  to  see  and  ad¬ 
venture  was  he  great  in  his  power  to  suffer. 
So  quiet  and  uncomplaining  was  he  that  no 
one  would  have  suspected  who  did  not  know 
that  his  life  was  ever  other  than  smooth  and 
unruffled.  But  besides  the  fact  that 
physically,  as  his  daughter  says  in  a  recent 
letter,  he  was  far  from  strong,  there  were  con¬ 
ditions  in  his  home  that  made  his  service  in 
recent  years  peculiarly  trying.  Through  those 
days  and  nights  of  travel  and  toil  in  the 


26 


Far  East,  we  knew  that  in  spite  of  his  unfail¬ 
ing  cheerfulness  he  was  carrying  a  breaking 
heart.  He  was  thinking  of  the  stricken  com¬ 
panion  many  miles  away  and  needing  so  much 
his  companionship  and  tender  care. 

When  information  came  to  him  that  he  had 
been  assigned  as  Bishop  to  the  Orient,  un¬ 
decided  what  he  should  do  in  view  of  his  wife’s 
critical  condition,  he  turned  to  her  and  asked, 
“What  about  it?’’  Without  a  moment’s 
hesitation  she  answered,  “You  are  going.  ’’ 

He  came  to  Korea  in  the  midst  of  the  bitter¬ 
est  religious  persecution  that  has  come  to  the 
Church  in  any  country  in  modern  times,  and, 
entering  so  completely  into  the  fellowship  of 
their  sufferings,  he  endeared  himself  all  the 
more  to  them  by  speaking  freely  of  his  wife’s 
solicitude  for  the  Korean  people,  telling 
them  that  when  he  hesitated  to  leave  her, 
because  it  seemed  doubtful  now,  if  he  did, 
that  he  should  ever  see  her  alive  again,  she  had 
said:  “No,  no,  you  must  go.  The  Koreans 
need  you  more  than  I  do.  ’’ 

The  sacrifice  of  both  was  no  less  heroic,  or 
their  suffering  less  real  and  poignant,  that  an 
agreement  in  sacred  dedication  many  years 
before,  made  this  pathway  of  loneliness  plain 
beneath  their  pilgrim  feet.  In  one  of  his  last 
letters  to  Doctor  Pinson,  he  said:  “My  wife 


27 


and  I  put  ourselves  into  God’s  hands  years 
ago,  and  we  are  in  His  hands  now.  I  have  no 
fear  for  the  future.  He  leads  and  provides.” 

HIS  LIFE’S  SECRET 

The  secret  of  his  life  is  not  far  to  seek.  The 
spirit  of  unselfishness  in  service,  of  humility 
and  faith  and  sacrifice,  mark  him  as  a  man 
who  had  been  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
providences  of  his  life  strongly  suggest  that  at 
the  hand  of  his  great  Master  he  carried  some 
high  commission. 

His  great-grandfather,  William  Lambuth, 
was  born  in  Hanover  County,  Virginia,  and 
was  sent  by  Bishop  Asbury  as  a  missionary  to 
the  Indians  in  the  wilds  of  Tennessee.  His 
grandfather,  also  a  William,  was  sent  as  a 
missionary  to  the  Indians  of  Alabama.  In 
the  midst  of  a  protracted  meeting  which  he 
was  conducting  in  Greene  County,  Alabama, 
in  1839,  William  Lambuth  left  without  ex¬ 
planation.  When  he  returned  they  were  in 
a  missionary  meeting,  and  he  explained  his 
absence  by  saying:  “I  was  called  home  by  the 
birth  of  a  baby  boy.  In  heartfelt  gratitude 
I  dedicated  the  child  to  the  Lord  as  a  foreign 
missionary,  and  I  now  add  a  bale  of  cotton  to 
send  him  with.”  The  baby  was  James 
William  Lambuth,  father  of  our  great  Bishop. 


28 


The  young  teacher  from  the  North  that  cast 
in  her  fortune  with  J.  W.  Lambuth,  becoming 
in  vision  and  courage  as  great  a  missionary  as 
either  her  husband  or  her  son,  before  their 
marriage  put  $5.00  into  amissionary  collection, 
with  a  card  saying,  “I  give  myself  to  this  noble 
work.”  The  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his 
wonderfully  gracious  life  answered  throughout 
to  the  providence  of  his  great  vocation.  In 
these  prenatal  days,  taking  133  days  then  from 
America  to  China,  upon  the  rolling  sea,  who 
would  say  that  into  his  dawning  spirit  was 
not  wrought,  in  the  very  constitution  and  fiber 
of  his  personality,  that  restlessness  which, 
when  he  had  once  heard  the  call  and  received 
his  royal  commission,  would  not  rest  or  pause, 
but  going,  ever  going,  crossing  new  frontiers, 
exploring  new  fields,  our  pioneer  and  ex¬ 
plorer,  the  great  Pathfinder  of  our  Methodism, 
could  never  for  a  moment  pitch  his  moving 
tent  so  long  as  upon  the  soil  of  this  whole  earth 
there  was  still  one  solitary  field  unoccupied 
by  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  Certainly  the 
vision  of  J.  W.  Lambuth,  the  courage  and  hero¬ 
ism  of  Mary  Lambuth,  came  inevitably  to  the 
boy  of  that  home  as  his  greatest  inheritance, 
becoming  also  his  best  equipment  for  the  high 
service  of  the  Church  and  his  generation  to 
which  God’s  Providence  called  him. 


A  great  evangelist  of  the  last  generation  has 
said:  “The  world  is  yet  to  see  what  one  man 
might  accomplish  whose  life  was  wholly  given 
to  God.”  In  the  life  of  the  evangelist  himself 
the  world  well  nigh  saw  it,  but  in  no  one  else  in 
our  generation  was  that  demonstration  more 
nobly  made  than  in  the  life  of  Walter  Lam- 
buth.  In  my  heart  I  believe  that  the  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  not  more  truly 
separated  from  his  mother’s  womb  for  the 
work  to  which  he  was  called  than  was  Walter 
Lambuth  to  lead  out  a  Church,  and  largely  the 
Church  in  his  generation,  into  larger  fields  of 
missionary  endeavor  and  achievement. 

THE  WHOLE  CHURCH  MOURNS 

It  is  not,  therefore,  wonderful  that  when  the 
cable  came  announcing  the  death  of  Walter 
Lambuth,  church  bells  tolled  from  one  end  of 
our  great  Southland  to  the  other,  for  all  over 
this  country,  and  not  in  our  own  Church  only, 
there  are  multitudes  of  people  who  mourn  his 
going  as  a  brother  and  friend.  Long  before 
his  death,  a  distinguished  leader  of  another 
Church,  in  some  public  statement,  declared 
that  the  most  heroic  and  self-sacrificing  mis¬ 
sionary  it  had  been  his  privilege  to  know  was 
Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  In  one  of  the  great 


30 


inter-denominational  committees  convening 
in  New  York,  when  intelligence  of  his  death 
came,  announcement  was  formally  made  and 
testimonies  were  given  of  hia  great  service  to 
his  generation.  And  one  of  the  world’s  great 
religious  leaders,  voicing  the  feeling  of  us  all  in 
prayer  said:  ‘‘We  are  inexpressibly  shocked 
by  the  word  that  has  just  come  to  us  of  the 
going  away  of  our  great  friend  and  brother; 
we  are  still  groping  and  cannot  find  our  way, 
the  chasm  made  by  his  going  is  so  vast.” 

Those  of  us  who  were  closest  to  him  and 
officially  associated  with  him  find  ourselves 
lonely  and  embarrassed  at  every  turn  of  the 
work  in  the  fields  to  which  he  was  so  peculiarly 
related.  We  are  stunned,  and  are  staggering 
our  way  beneath  the  mystery  of  his  untmely 
taking  away.  That  mystery  hangs  still  about 
us.  But  I  can  only  think  with  reverence  of 
that  time  when  the  great  Master  of  us  all 
paused  at  the  noon-tide  of  his  work  and  said 
that  he  must  lay  it  down,  and  when  His  dis¬ 
ciples  besought  him  to  remain  and  continue 
to  lead  them.  He  only  assured  them  it  was  bet¬ 
ter  that  he  went  away,  for  only  so  would  he 
send  his  spirit  upon  the  Church.  It  is  no  sac¬ 
rilege  or  irreverence  to  think  of  our  fallen 
leader  in  the  fashion  of  his  great  Master. 

May  it  not  be  that  as  much  as  we  need  the 


inspiration  and  guidance  of  his  personal 
leadership,  even  more  does  the  Church  need 
the  touch  and  contagion  of  his  great  spirit! 

And  if  to  the  Church,  in  a  time  like 
this,  shall  come  his  spirit  of  vision  and  cour¬ 
age,  a  passion  for  service  that  counts  no  cost 
and  a  confidence,  a  faith  in  God,  that  dares  any 
danger  or  difficulty — if  as  we  look  with  sorrow¬ 
ful  eyes  to  see  him  as  he  is  taken  away  from 
us  this  day,  a  double  portion  of  the  spirit  of 
Walter  Lambuth  shall  come  upon  us  all,  the 
hurt  of  our  loneliness  will  for  many  days  en¬ 
dure  but  the  Providence  of  his  going  will  be 
clear  and  sure. 


“Tomorrow  I  go  under  the  surgeon's  knife.  I  have  no 
fear  and  feel  no  anxiety  for  the  result,  that  is  with  God  and 
Him  alone,  whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve.  I  am  concerned 
about  the  work  and  the  workers  in  these  four  great  fields 
and  about  the  peace  and  health  of  my  loved  ones  at  home, 
but  these  and  they  are  in  the  care  and  keeping  of  the  great 
Shepherd  of  the  sheep.” — Words  of  Bishop  Lambuth 
the  day  before  the  operation. 


V-* 


32 


Bishop  Walter  R.  Lamtufh 

A  MEMORY 

The  past  is  not  all  alike  to  us.  Some  of  the 
events  of  the  years  gone  by  are  but  as  dim 
legends  to  us  now.  Other  events  leave  be¬ 
hind  impressions  that  resemble  the  glow  on 
the  mountain  tops  reflected  by  the  setting 
sun  after  it  has  dropped  below  the  horizon. 
It  is  an  event  of  the  latter  kind  of  which  I 
wish  to  give  an  account.  More  than  three 
decades  have  intervened  since  that  day,  yet, 
the  personal  experience  of  the  small  group  of 
men,  who  were  made  to  rejoice  together,  is  as 
vivid  to  our  minds  now  as  something  that 
occurred  yesterday. 

The  place  where  the  event  occurred  was 
Oita,  our  first  mission  station.  It  was  a  pre- 
fectural  seat  on  the  island  of  Kyushiu,  a  town 
situated  on  the  curved  shore  of  a  bay  which 
forms  a  part  of  the  Inland  Sea  famed  for  its 
scenery.  It  was  here  that  Francis  Xavier, 
more  than  two  centuries  before,  had  come 
ashore  and  won  over  to  the  Catholic  faith  the 
Daimio  and  many  of  his  people.  It  was  on 
this  island  that  persecution  later  wrought  its 
greatest  havoc,  when  every  visible  trace  of 


33 

Catholicism  was  destroyed  in  Japan.  It  was 
on  ground  made  sacred  by  Christian  martyr¬ 
doms,  at  that  time  of  bitter  opposition,  when 
both  missionaries  and  Japanese  converts 
sealed  their  faithfulness  with  the  cheerful 
offering  up  of  life  itself.  It  was  among  a 
population,  required  for  two  centuries  after¬ 
ward  and  until  1872,  to  trample  on  the  cross 
of  Christ  and  renounce  the  '‘Evil  Sect.”  It 
was  not  far  away  from  this  place,  in  a  neigh¬ 
boring  town,  called  Takeda,  that  an  old  bell 
still  hangs  in  a  heathen  temple,  with  a  cross 
molded  into  it,  a  fitting  symbol  of  the  apparent 
defeat  of  the  earlier  Christian  missions  pro¬ 
jected  in  that  region. 

It  was  at  Oita,  amidst  such  surroundings, 
that  we  first  took  up  our  task  as  missionaries 
to  Japan.  We  stepped  ashore  at  2  o’clock 
in  the  morning,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Lambuth, 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Mission,  who  left 
us  after  a  day  or  two  to  work  out  our  problems 
in  this  new  and  peculiar  field.  In  the  morning 
the  sun  rose  over  beyond  the  Bungo  Nada  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  homeland  far  away. 
In  the  evening,  the  group  of  hills  at  Beppu, 
about  8  miles,  away,  glowed  with  the  light  of 
the  sunset  and  had  been  smoothed  down  and 
clothed  in  verdure,  though  in  the  not  long  ago 
they  were  active  volcanoes,  and  still  con- 


34 


cealed  in  their  depths  burning  fires.  It  would 
be  beyond  words  to  tell  how  happy  we  were 
during  the  first  days  and  months,  tasting  the 
unspeakable  joy  of  seeing  realized  the  bright 
dreams  that  had  brought  us  across  the  Pacific 
Ocean  in  an  adventure  for  the  Master’s  cause. 
We  set  to  work  with  unbounded  enthusiasm. 
The  people  were  friendly.  The  choicest  young 
folks  of  the  community  gathered  about  us. 
Success  seemed  easy  and  victory  a  prize  won 
without  cost.  There  were  many  hearty  de¬ 
cisions  for  Christ  among  the  young  men  and 
young  women  who  came  to  our  place  for  Bible 
study. 

But  in  the  course  of  time  the  new  loyalties 
of  the  young  converts  came  into  conflict  with 
ancient  customs.  Young  Hirotsu,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  a  student  in  the  normal  school,  where 
Mrs.  Wainright  was  teaching,  was  expelled. 
He  had  declined  on  the  ground  of  conscience, 
a  new  principle  of  action  in  matters  of  faith  in 
that  community,  to  worship  the  spirits  of 
fallen  soldiers  at  the  annual  ceremony  con¬ 
ducted  in  the  cemetery  for  that  purpose. 
There  was  much  persecution  in  the  homes  of 
the  Christians.  The  Yanagiwara  brothers 
suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  their  father 
whose  business  it  once  was  to  see  that  the 
people  trampled  on  the  cross  of  Christ.  The 


opposition  deepened  and  grew  bitter  and  be¬ 
came  threatening  and  even  violent.  Our 
house  was  attacked  and  our  lives  were  threat¬ 
ened.  When  adversaries  without  were  most 
active,  a  blow  from  within  was  more  dis¬ 
heartening  still.  The  most  mature  member 
of  our  congregation  turned  atheist  and  sought 
to  overthrow  the  faith  of  the  others  among 
whom  he  had  been  the  leader. 

Matters  were  fast  approaching  a  crisis. 
Our  responsibility  bore  heavily  upon  us.  Had 
not  those  young  souls  responded  to  our  ap¬ 
peals,  and,  in  many  instances,  accepted  the 
call  to  Christian  faith  and  service  at  the  cost 
of  peace  in  the  home  and  of  good  fellowship 
with  their  friends?  They  had  accepted  the 
Scriptures  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  and 
were  obedient  in  all  things  and  were  ready  to 
suffer  for  the  cause  they  had  championed. 
They  had  been  established  with  us  in  Christ, 
yet  there  was  a  feeling  of  insecurity  which 
troubled  us.  We  could  not  say  that  ‘‘God 
hath  also  sealed  us,  and  given  the  earnest  of 
the  Spirit  in  our  hearts.”  We  had  intro¬ 
duced  the  tradition,  the  word  of  testimony, 
on  which  the  cause  rested.  Our  strength  was 
in  the  letter  and  not  in  the  spirit.  The  con¬ 
gregation  had  been  trained  to  Christian  work, 
disciplined  in  the  Christian  life  and  taught  the 


36 

il' 


scriptures,  so  far  as  we  in  our  youthful  way 
were  able  to  do  the  work  of  missionaries.  Yet 
we  felt  that  all  odds  were  against  us.  The 
world  and  its  opposition,  the  intractable  cus¬ 
toms  of  an  ancient  society,  and  the  powers 
of  darkness  always  and  everywhere  ready  to 
contest  every  step  made  in  Christian  advance, 
seemed  too  great  to  be  overcome.  We  were 
all  young,  all  laymen  and  all  inexperienced. 

At  the  time  when  the  most  critical  stage  was 
reached,  prayer  became  a  reality  in  our  lives. 
It  was  our  last  resort  and  should  have  been 
our  first.  We  knew  literally  what  it  was  to 
pray  without  ceasing,  to  carry  about  with  us 
day  and  night  a  crushing  burden,  to  call  upon 
God  for  some  token  of  His  presence  and  mani¬ 
festation  of  His  power  when  the  need  for  such 
was  indeed  desperate;  what  it  was  to  continue 
in  supplication  until  even  physical  strength 
failed  us  and  our  hearts  grew  faint  with  much 
pleading.  But  never  for  a  moment  did  a  doubt 
cast  a  shadow  upon  our  own  minds  that  God 
was  able  to  perform  a  mighty  work  in  Oita 
as  he  had  done  in  the  camp  meeting  and  in  the 
revival  service  in  the  homeland  to  which  we 
had  been  witnesses  from  childhood. 

The  year  was  drawing  to  a  close,  our  second 
year  at  Oita,  when  Dr.  Lambuth,  Y.  Yosh- 
ioka  and  H.  Nakamura  visited  us.  When  we 


informed  Dr.  Lambuth  that  for  more  than 
two  months  we  had  been  engaged  in  incessant 
prayer  for  victory  in  that  community,  we  were 
greatly  surprised  to  hear  from  his  own  lips  that 
he  himself  for  sometime  had  been  earnestly 
seeking  a  blessing  in  his  own  personal  life  and 
a  greater  degree  of  spiritual  power  in  the  work. 
He  had  been  engaged  in  medical  work  up  to 
the  time  he  came  to  Japan  where  new  re¬ 
sponsibilities  were  placed  upon  him,  as  Super¬ 
intendent  of  the  Mission,  for  Christian  leader¬ 
ship.  He  had  been  brought  to  feel  a  sense  of 
need,  a  deep  desire  for  spiritual  qualifications 
to  do  the  work  now  expected  of  him,  and 
directly  connected  with  the  furtherance  of  the 
gospel.  He  expressed  the  hope  that  the  con¬ 
verging  of  lines  of  prayer  our  conversation 
had  brought  to  light  would  result  in  a  signal 
answer  while  they  were  present  at  Oita  and 
before  the  end  of  the  year. 

We  do  not  recall  whether  it  was  on  the  last 
day  of  the  year  or  a  day  or  two  earlier.  But 
preceding  a  night  service  that  had  been  an¬ 
nounced  for  the  congregation,  four  of  us  knelt 
for  prayer  in  my  study  about  four  o’clock  in 
the  afternoon,  namely  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Y. 
Yoshioka,  H.  Nakamura  and  myself.  After 
we  had  spent  some  time  on  our  knees,  and 
while  Dr.  Lambuth  was  praying,  a  very 


A 

d 


strange  thing  occurred.  While  praying  in  a 
deliberate  manner,  his  voice  suddenly  began 
to  show  weakness  and  gradually  seemed  to  fail 
him.  We  could  tell  by  his  language  that  he 
felt  a  disturbed  sense  of  the  presence  of  God. 
He  begged  for  release  from  an  oppression  his 
strength  could  not  endure.  What  troubled 
him,  and  seemed  to  terrify  him,  was  a  con¬ 
sciousness  that  God  was  near  and  mysteriously 
visible  to  him.  His  failing  strength,  which 
might  have  alarmed  us,  really  gave  us  no  con¬ 
cern.  And  yet  it  seemed  that  life  was 
actually  sinking  away.  When  his  voice  grew 
weak  and  reached  almost  the  vanishing  point, 
he  began  to  call  upon  Christ  to  stand  between 
him  and  the  overpowering  Presence.  That 
plea  evidently  met  with  response,  for  he  began 
to  rally  and  seemed  to  have  a  distinct  vision  of 
the  approach  of  Christ.  At  this  point  not 
only  did  he  begin  to  rally,  but  what  seemed 
to  be  an  upward  tide  swept  the  room.  It  car¬ 
ried  away  burdens  that  had  rested  heavily 
upon  us  for  months.  It  liberated  our  spirits 
and  our  joy  was  so  great  that  we  scarcely 
knew  whether  we  were  in  the  body  or  out 
of  the  body.  The  time  slipped  by  without 
our  knowledge  and  before  we  had  arisen  from 
our  knees  the  maid  came  to  announce  the 
evening  meal.  No  one  went  to  the  table,  as 
we  remember.  The  experience  of  the  after- 


89 


noon  was  so  intense  we  were  preoccupied 
with  the  joy  of  the  moment.  The  upper 
rooms  were  not  all  in  Jerusalem,  but  there 
in  that  distant  spot  God  had  poured  out  his 
Spirit  upon  us  as  upon  those  at  the 
beginning. 

The  evening  hour  soon  came  and  the  con¬ 
gregation  gathered  in  the  adjoining  house 
where  a  place  of  worship  had  been  provided  by 
converting  two  large  rooms  into  one.  Dr. 
Lambuth  opened  the  service  and  Dr.  Yoshioka 
delivered  the  address,  speaking  with  great 
earnestness.  Indeed  there  was  a  peculiar 
glow  upon  his  face  as  he  told  of  Christ  and  his 
grace  to  save.  After  a  song  all  knelt  in  prayer. 
Following  the  custom  one  succeeded  another 
in  leading  the  congregation.  It  was  while  we 
were  on  our  knees,  that  suddenly  out  of  the 
great  unseen  there  swept  upon  us  and  through 
the  congregation  a  power  as  real  as  it  was 
mysterious.  All  seemed  to  bow  under  its  in¬ 
fluence  as  the  grain  sways  before  the  wind. 
Some  were  overawed.  Some  were  smitten  in 
their  consciences.  Some  were  made  joyously 
happy.  It  was  a  memorable  scene.  Namio 
Yanagiwara,  one  of  the  leaders  among  the 
young  men,  rose  to  his  feet,  opened  the  New 
Testament  at  the  second  chapter  of  Acts  and 
began  to  read.  Lifting  the  Book  up  so  that  all 


40 

could  see  it  and  pointing  his  finger  to  the 
Word,  he  declared  with  earnestness  and  em¬ 
phasis  that  the  account  which  they  had  read, 
but  hitherto  could  not  understand,  was  now 
fulfilled  before  their  eyes.  It  was  well  on 
toward  midnight  when  the  closing  hymn  was 
sung  and  when  all  faces  seemed  to  be  as  one 
face  because  of  the  common  light  that  rested 
upon  all.  On  the  way  home  some  were  con¬ 
verted  who  had  been  present.  The  next 
night  so  many  came  that  the  big  front  gates 
had  to  be  barred  after  the  house  was  filled.  It 
was  noised  abroad  among  the  people  that  God 
had  come  down  and  made  himself  known  to 
the  Christian  congregation. 

Such  is  an  outline  account  of  the  event 
about  which  Bishop  Lambuth  took  a  peculiar 
delight  in  speaking.  We  have  retold  the 
story  in  order  to  relate  the  part  he  had  in  it, 
and  to  give  an  account  of  his  memorable  ex¬ 
perience  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  pres¬ 
ent  in  the  room,  an  experience  about  which  he 
said  little  when  telling  the  story  of  the  Oita 
Revival.  We  have  spoken  of  the  situation  in 
order  that  the  conditions  most  peculiar  and 
trying  may  throw  light  upon  what  took  place. 
Bishop  Lambuth’s  death,  we  believe,  was  the 
first  break  in  that  circle  of  men  who  were  made 
to  drink  together  of  the  one  Spirit.  The  two 


41 


Yanagiwara  brothers,  Kugimiya,  Oshima, 
Yoshioka,  Nakamura  and  others  who  were 
present  have  wrought  faithfully  through  the 
years  and  are  now  outstanding  as  leaders  in 
the  Japan  Methodist  Church.  All  alike  look 
back  to  the  time  about  which  we  have  written 
as  to  a  Pentecost. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  nature  of  the 
event  at  Oita,  it  brought  nothing  but  good  to 
the  lives  of  those  who  had  part  in  it.  What 
took  place  was  swift  and  immediate  and  de¬ 
cisive,  yet  the  fruit  has  been  permanent 
through  the  succeeding  years.  There  was 
something  about  the  experience  that  answered 
perfectly  to  the  heart  yearning  of  those  who 
entered  into  it.  God’s  Word  was  apprehended 
in  a  fresh  light  that  day  and  was  relished  in  its 
own  living  significance  and  power.  The  Chris¬ 
tian  religion  asserted  itself,  so  to  speak,  in  its 
absoluteness.  We  were  made  to  feel  that  our 
sufficiency  was  in  the  Spirit,  without  the  need 
of  dependence  upon  any  earthly  power. 

Among  those  so  signally  blessed  by  this 
supernatural  visitation,  none  was  more  pro¬ 
foundly  impressed  than  was  Bishop  Lambuth 
himself.  None  had  a  more  fundamental  un¬ 
derstanding  of  its  true  nature  and  meaning 
than  he.  In  a  letter  to  the  Missionary  Re¬ 
porter  of  May,  1890,  he  detailed  the  spiritual 


42 


manifestation  and  his  article  produced  a  deep 
effect  throughout  the  missionary  world. 

“These  persecutions,”  he  wrote  “brought 
Dr.  Wainwright  and  his  noble  band  of  boys 
down  upon  their  knees.  By  the  time  we 
reached  Oita  an  atmosphere  of  an  approaching 
shower  of  grace  was  over  them  and  filled  the 
church.  Upon  the  evening  of  December  31 
four  of  us  assembled  in  our  brother’s  sitting- 
room  as  one  man  for  prayer  and  rededication 
of  ourselves.  We  then  and  there  received 
such  a  revelation  of  the  presence  of  the 
Almighty  as  we  had  never  before  experienced. 
For  two  hours  we  four  wrestled  with  God. 
It  was  our  Peniel.  We  saw  God  face  to  face, 
and  were  preserved.  I  say  this  with  awe  and 
humility.  Such  a  humbling  of  ourselves  we 
never  had  before.  The  awful  presence  of  a 
pure  and  holy  God  threw  us  upon  our  faces 
prostrate  before  him. 

“After  two  hours  we  arose,  and  gazed  into 
each  other’s  faces  with  mute  astonishment; 
whether  in  the  body  or  not  in  the  body,  we 
scarcely  knew.  Unable  to  eat  supper,  with 
one  accord  we  assembled  in  the  adjoining 
chapel.  One  of  our  native  brethren — Brother 
Yoshioko — preached  as  though  inspired.  I 
have  never  before  heard  such  a  sermon  from 
any  tongue.  The  Holy  Spirit  fell  upon  us 


■  j 


r 

;  48 

Cl.. 

with  a  mighty  rush  and  swayed  the  congre¬ 
gation  as  if  by  the  sweep  of  a  tornado.  Con¬ 
viction  was  followed  by  conversion,  and  the 
shouts  of  the  redeemed  ascended  to  heaven. 

“Four  young  men  have  been  called  to  the 
ministry  as  a  result  of  that  meeting.  Two 
are  in  our  Kobe  Bible  school  today.  Two 
Bible  women  have  been  given  us.  The  young 
men — God  bless  them — rushed  from  the  house 
after  12  o’clock  that  night;  and  going  to  their 
homes,  waked  their  heathen  parents  from  their 
heavy  vslumbers,  and  with  tears  urged  them  to 
repentance.  The  Lord  answered  their 
prayers,  and  the  parents  of  several  came  dur¬ 
ing  the  next  two  days,  and  with  moistened 
eyes  confessed  that  they  had  wronged  their 
sons. 

“In  ten  days  more  the  blessing  came  to 
our  boys’  school  in  Kobe,  and  at  this  writing 
not  one  heathen  boy  is  left  in  our  dormitories; 
to  a  man  they  have  professed  faith  in  Christ 
as  a  personal  Saviour.  Rejoice  with  us,  dear 
Doctor;  this  is  indeed  the  hand  of  the  Lord. 
‘His  hand  is  not  shortened.’  ’’ 

There  was  a  rich  significance  in  Bishop 
Lambuth’s  experience  that  afternoon.  How 
different  it  was  from  what  is  often  described  as 
the  mystic  realization  of  God!  There  was 
nothing  vague  or  abstract  or  indistinct  about 


it.  God  was  certainly  more  than  an  ex¬ 
perience  to  him.  He  was  an  object  as  well. 
It  was  no  “pure  presence”  of  which  he  was 
conscious.  The  Divine  Realities  were  as  con¬ 
crete  to  him  as  the  interior  of  the  room  in 
which  we  knelt.  There  was  an  impulse  to 
constant  activity  with  Bishop  Lambuth  which 
in  part  may  have  been  a  matter  of  tempera¬ 
ment  and  in  part  the  outworking  of  an  eager 
mind.  But  I  never  could  be  made  to  believe 
that  his  years  of  activity  and  unwearied  de¬ 
votion  to  the  Church  were  ever  to  be  explained 
apart  from  the  intense  moments  at  Oita  when 
his  life  seemed  to  hang  by  a  brittle  thread  so 
overpowered  was  he  by  the  mysteries  of  the 
Triune  God,  as  truly  objective  to  him  as  they 
were  divine.  Now  that  the  Church  contem¬ 
plates  his  career  as  a  whole  and  will  preserve 
it  in  memory  as  one  of  its  treasures,  it  is  our 
feeling  that  nothing  in  his  eventful  years  is  so 
capable  of  becoming  a  blessing  to  others  as  a 
consideration  of  his  deep  experience  on  the 
occasion  he  himself  took  such  a  delight  in 
talking  about  to  others. 


"In  our  fraternal  sympathy  with  our  sister  Church  in 
this  hour  of  her  bereavement,  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sions,  here  assembled,  wish  to  record  the  conviction  that  in 
the  passing  of  this  fine  spirit,  this  vision-gifted  missionary, 
this  eminent  bishop,  this  stalwart  son  of  God,  we  and  the 
entire  Christian  world  experience  a  loss  unmeasured  by 
words,  while  the  annals  of  the  Church  of  Christ  will  ever¬ 
more  be  enriched  by  the  memory  of  a  life  to  which  we  would 
pay  the  tribute  of  our  emulation.” — Memoirs  Committee 
of  the  M.  £.  Church,  Nov.  28, 1921. 


46 

Jj 

v 


OUR  PRAYER 


We  thank  Thee,  our  Father,  for 
the  gift  of  this  thy  faithful  servant. 
As  abides  in  our  hearts  the  sweet 
memory  of  his  life  and  testimony 
among  us,  may  a  double  portion 
of  his  spirit  come  upon  us, — his 
vision  and  courage;  his  unselfish¬ 
ness  and  faith  and  patience;  his 
passion  of  service,  whether  for 
continent,  heathen  stranger  or 
humblest  little  child;  his  unfalter¬ 
ing  loyalty  to  the  last  command¬ 
ment  of  our  Lord.  Upon  the 
heart  of  the  Church  at  home  and 
abroad  to  its  remotest  bounds, 
sorrowful  and  chastened  by  his 
going,  let  there  come  the  spirit  of 
his  great  Master  and  ours — the 
spirit  of  enduement  for  service  in 
world-wide  Pentecost.  In  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, 
Amen. 


47 

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